All Time is Wasted

February 22

Good morning, friend.

Youth is wasted on the young, the saying goes.

It would be so much better invested by those who understand how fleeting it is—people with the perspective to know that risk in life is constant. So much more of life would be lived, daring ventures, breathless travel, undertaken by those who have had all the opportunities of youth slowly wrenched away from them by time.

Of course, if youth is wasted on the young, then experience is wasted on the old. How would anyone old know to invest their time differently if they had not, in some small regards, failed to do so? Isn’t everyone afforded, within reason, roughly the same amount of youth?

What if, instead, those who were old, said: “I was young once, and spent my youth on what made the most sense to me at the time.” And those who were young said, “I am young now, but one day will be old and have hopefully learned from the process, so it might be worth giving my own instincts a second listen.”

Not to say that to each other—but to ourselves. No more wasting time. Just living in a complete relationship of trust.

I regret what I did, but I was in my own head and know I was doing the best I could given the situation and information I had. Older me would do differently now. But older me wasn’t younger me, and I trust younger me.

And in the reverse…

This situation is complicated, and I hope when I’m older, I have better perspective and am more capable of handling decisions like this. But for now, I’ve got to make the call and live with it, because it’s the only way I’ll learn otherwise.

Just like I’ll do tomorrow, and in a year, and in ten years after that.

Complete trust with my past self, complete faith in my future self.

Morning Reading is a daily email to help center yourself, reflect, and prepare for the day. It’s sent with love from your friend, Zach in Austin, Texas. He even drew the logo himself.

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